Ringo Starr Celebrates 85th Birthday With Help From a Cast of Friends

T Bone Burnett used the occasion of Ringo Starr‘s birthday celebration in Beverly Hills to raise what he considers to be an eternal debate. “I do want to say that there is a controversy about Ringo Starr’s drumming,” the producer-emcee said. “The question is, is he a great drummer, or is he the greatest drummer?”

That issue has probably long since been settled for most of the dozens of friends, family and guests who made it to Beverly Hills Garden Park Monday on the occasion of Starr’s 85th. It was not just his percussion skills being extolled, of course. As Burnett told Variety backstage, “You know, Ringo is an extraordinary force for good in the world. There’s nobody like him — nobody creating more good will than Ringo Starr.”

The semi-private, semi-public function — with fans and new media gathered around the perimeter of a celeb-filled garden party — is always livestreamed each July 7 so that the former Beatle’s followers can chant or shout his catchphrase “Peace and love” at noon PT. In recent years the tradition has extended to include a short concert of Starr’s hits prior to the countdown, with performances this year curated by Burnett and performed by a cast that included Jackson Browne, Sam Phillips, Lucius and Molly Tuttle.

Starr had his phone out to do his own personal livestream of these cover versions of his songs to a one-man audience. After the final number, Starr stood up from the front row of folding chairs planted in the grass and held up his phone, telling the audience: “Just to let you know, Paul thought it was great!”

Ringo Starr with the phone he was using to stream performances at his 85th birthday celebration to Paul McCartney
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Tuttle, the young bluegrass-pop performer, was first up among the performers, singing the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden,” after being introduced by Burnett as “my favorite guitar player at the moment; also, my favorite singer.” He featured her on the recent country-flavored album he produced for Starr, “Look Up” (and she’ll be on the sequel, but more about that in a minute). Tuttle, who also appeared on a recent network tribute to Starr filmed in Nashville, enthused backstage about how he lived up to her expectations. “This is my third show with Ringo, and it’s been so fun. I was just overjoyed to get to be here for his birthday party,” she said. “I grew up listening to Ringo, but then getting to be around him in person, his joy and love is kind of infectious for everyone.”

Molly Tuttle and Sam Phillips perform at Ringo Starr’s 85th birthday celebration in Beverly Hills
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From then on, each new singer who came to the stage stayed aboard to sing with whoever came next. Following Tuttle came Sam Phillips, who sang Starr’s biggest solo hit from the early ’70s, “Photograph.” The duo Lucius then emerged to take the lead on “Yellow Submarine,” including a birthday-themed variation on the spoken-word nautical bits. Jackson Browne’s turn came with “Act Naturally,” a cover of the Beatles’ cover of Buck Owens. And then the full cast joined together, sort of, for “A Little Help From My Friends,” which the band had rehearsed but the singers had not, leaving drummer Gregg Bissonete to fill in some of the lines that no one else seemed quite prepared to.

David Mansfield and Lucius perform at Ringo Starr’s 85th birthday celebration in Beverly Hills
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“I didn’t think about it, but we get to sing these songs looking at you, Ringo,” said Browne, before launching into his given tune just a few yards from Starr in the front row. That’s a remark that would usually convey nervousness, but Jackson didn’t seem particularly rattled (because if as convivial a legend as Ringo Starr induces anxiety in you, maybe you’re doing it wrong?).

Jackson Browne and Joe Walsh at Ringo Starr’s 85th birthday celebration in Beverly Hills
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Longtime BFF Joe Walsh also got up to join in the sing-alongs as well as do some speechifying. The crackerjack band being seen by the partygoers in Beverly Hills (and by Paul McCartney, somewhere out there) was mostly a complement of the T Bone Burnett all-stars, including David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch and Colin Linden, plus Bissonette, who plays in Starr’s touring All Star Band, and John Jorgenson.

After the performances ended, there was a gap before the countdown, and so Burnett introduced an additional musician who’d volunteered to give a short lesson in the trademark drumming style of Ringo Starr: Fred Armisen. “There is not a greater drummer in the world.,” Armisen avowed as he sat down at the kit. “So I’m gonna do an impression of Ringo’s drumming, because when he plays, if you ever watch him, he’s actually dancing as he plays — it’s a beautiful thing — (even as) he lays down such a heavy beat.”

Backstage afterward, Armisen added, “I would say since I was 8 years old, easily, maybe younger, I’ve been copying Ringo. When I first heard the Beatles, the first thing that caught my ear and made an impression on me was the drumming. So I’ve been doing it most of my life.”

Fred Armisen offers a sample of Ringo Starr’s drumming style at his 85th birthday celebration in Beverly Hills
The members of Lucius celebrate Ringo Starr’s 85th birthday in Beverly Hills before performing

Walsh got up to offer some recollections that, being more of a contemporary of Starr’s, had gone down in real time. “I was a really dumb guy in Montclair, New Jersey in high school,” Walsh told the crowd, “and I washed dishes at a ice cream place, and while I was washing the dishes, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ came on. “And from then, 1963, I thought that’s what I wanted to do. Because I didn’t have a clue until I stood there in the kitchen and said, ‘What the hell is that?’ And I just want to say, since 1963, the entire world has had somebody to love, and that is Ringo.”

Walsh did find somebody else to love, through Starr. “When I was doing an album with Ringo in England called ‘Old Wave,’ I was at at their house and Barbara (Bach)’s little sister stopped by for three minutes, and I was in love with Barbara’s sister from then on. And then I was at their house in L.A. — this is many, many years later —and I saw Marjorie again and we hugged each other. And she said, ‘Did you feel that?’ And I said, yeah. And Marjorie has been the love of my life after many years of thinking: Well, would this be incest, or how would this work? And would Rich and Barb kill me?” They did not. “Marjorie is the love of my life, and she’s a high-ranking officer in the Starkey family,” before asking all the members of that clan, including children (like Zak Starkey) and grandchildren, to stand up.

Barbara Bach, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Marjorie Bach at Starr’s 85th birthday celebration in Beverly HIlls
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After a birthday cake was cut and Starr was given a proclamation of the day being Ringo Starr Day from the mayor, he waxed appreciative of both the city and state. “Thank you, Beverly Hills,” he said. “You know, I lived in Admiral Grove in Liverpool. You couldn’t dream of ending up here. I did end up being in a good band, though! When you come to America, being British, it was like touching gold, because all of the songs and the singers and musicians we loved came from America. We were there in New York and you think, ‘Maybe I should live in New York.’ Then we came to California… ‘maybe California!’ And next time – ‘definitely California!” Not all of the Beatles took to it that severely, but Starr said, “I love it here, I love the people, I love the attitude. And the peace and love that’s shown in this state is incredible. And all the other states are trying,” he added, to laughter.

Starr has been riding high on the acclaim for the “Look Up” album. The good news, Burnett said backstage, is that a followup is already underway.

“We’re already halfway into another record, with a lot of the same people,” said Burnett. “Molly’s played on four songs so far. I mean, she killed that song this morning, ‘Octopus’s Garden’ — which is, you know, a country song. I don’t think people thought of it as a country song at the time, but all of Ringo’s stuff is basically country music. He’s sort of a hillbilly at heart, I think.”

T Bone Burnett presides over Ringo Starr’s 85th birthday celebration in Beverly Hills
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Will the sequel be in the same vein? “Yeah, I think it will,” Burnett said. “He’s calling it ‘Look Up II.’ But it’s interesting. When we started (on the previous album), neither one of us had any idea what we were doing, but it all came together through that process. And now we have a proof of concept, and so we’re building on that.” He backtracked just a little on the new album continuing exactly on the same track. “This is a little more hardcore rockabilly, this next iteration, because, you know, his early stuff (with the Beatles), like ’Honey Don’t,’ all of that stuff was basically rockabilly music.”

But Burnett also loves Starr’s gentler side. Asked if he had a favorite obscure song of Starr’s, after an agreement that no actual Beatles track counts as obscure, the producer came up with one. “There’s some songs I love. “What’s that Harry Nilsson song he did after the Beatles? It’s a ballad – ‘Easy for Me’ (from the 1974 album ‘Goodnight Vienna’). That’s a song that’s really where I learned about and understood Ringo’s voice — and probably, I think, it’s his true voice on that song, so that’s an important song to me.”

Burnett has other aspirations for Starr, whether or not he wants to pick them up. “He’s doing about two tours a year still with the All Starr Band. I don’t know if he’ll ever get into it, but I would love to do show with all of these musicians, just focused around Ringo. Because with the All Starr band, there are a lot of different singers, and I don’t know if he’s up for singing 15 songs in a night, but that’s my dream.”

There’s one thing Burnett can say with confidence, anyway. “I don’t think either of us is ready to be put out to pasture yet, you know?”